Toughie 2142 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Toughie 2142

Toughie No 2142 by Kcit

Hints and tips by Bufo

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Another steady solve. My only problem was caused by my misreading one of the letters I had filled in the grid thus making the crossing answer impossible to solve

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

Across

1a    ‘Wet’ encompasses a person with left-wing tendencies (6)
MAOIST: ‘Wet’ round A = an adherent of a Chinese type of communism

4a    Food item is hot and cold? Something dodgy about that (8)
FISHCAKE: IS, H (hot) and C (cold) inside something dodgy or counterfeit

10a    Source of rubber unknown no longer? (5)
LATEX: A letter denoting an unknown quantity follows a word meaning ‘former’

11a    Minister throttling one engaged in reversal of subsequent recovery (9)
RETRIEVAL: The abbreviation of a minister’s title round I (one) goes inside a reversal of ‘subsequent’

12a    Imagine young child, daughter, lacking a little energy (7)
PRETEND: Remove E (energy) from a child aged 12 or under + D (daughter)

13a    Place with drinks around — fails to walk steadily (7)
TOPPLES: The abbreviation for ‘place’ inside ‘drinks hard regularly’

14a    Tendency to follow source about seasonal overhaul (6-8)
SPRING-CLEANING: A source + ‘about’ + a tendency

17a    Strange precaution with mast? This isn’t a hurricane! (5,2,1,6)
STORM IN A TEACUP: An anagram (strange) of PRECAUTION MAST

21a    Place, back in Irish islands, working with handcrafts? (7)
ARTISAN: A reversal of ‘to place’ inside the name of the group of islands in Galway Bay noted for knitwear

23a    Gentle praise echoed after seizure reduced (7)
GRADUAL: ‘Seizure’ with the last letter removed + a reversal of ‘to praise’

24a    Cut it fine when cooking pasta (9)
FETTUCINI: Am anagram (when cooking) of CUT IT FINE = pasta made in long ribbons

25a    Young fellow consuming popular cheesecake? (3-2)
PIN-UP: A young fellow round ‘popular’ = a photograph hung on a wall that might be of an erotic or pornographic nature (cheesecake)

26a    Fencer’s ultimate skill lying in sword responses (8)
REPARTEE: The last letter of FENCER + ‘skill’ inside a sword used in fencing

27a    Clearly that is a measure of effort? (6)
WELLIE: ‘Clearly’ + the abbreviation for ‘that is’ = a possible measure of effort, as in ‘give it some ******’

Down

1d    Roadside feature upended German car in fog (8)
MILEPOST: A reversal of a German car manufacturer inside a thin fog

2d    How it is when a left-winger pays repeatedly? (2,3,4)
ON THE TROT: The final word is a left-winger (communist)

3d    Wrong to accept kiss and clothing item like some adolescents (7)
SIXTEEN: A wrong goes round X (kiss) and a slip-on shirt

5d    Very keen on the pub profits as well (4,3,7)
INTO THE BARGAIN: ‘Very keen on’ + THE + a pub + profits

6d    Sixties musical with very good note (it’s rather sharp) (7)
HAIRPIN: A rock musical first performed in 1967 + ‘very good’ + N (note)

7d    Article with zero volume included as part of Verdi chorus (5)
ANVIL: The indefinite article + ‘zero’ round V (volume) = the name of a chorus from Verdi’s Il trovatore

8d    Holland is besieged by alien — join the army (6)
ENLIST: The IVR for the Netherlands and IS inside an alien

9d    Way of manufacturing quote from stage performance? (10,4)
PRODUCTION LINE: A stage performance + a small part of the script

15d    Study picked up change almost entirely occurring at night (9)
NOCTURNAL: A reversal of ‘to study’ + ‘to change’ + ‘entirely’ with the last letter removed

16d    Example of orderliness mostly brought to bear around recording (5,3)
APPLE PIE: ‘Brought to bear’ with the last letter removed round a 45-rpm recording

18d    Salvage worker errs badly about encouragement to action (7)
RESCUER: An anagram (badly) of ERRS = something which serves as a signal to begin

19d    Chop up tree, but not the second, for instance (7)
EXAMPLE: A reversal of ‘to chop’ + a type of tree with its second latter removed

20d    Foreman providing slip with resistance (6)
GAFFER: A slip or blunder + R (resistance)

22d    Sum that would result in no change? (3,2)
TOT UP: The first word is a palindrome and so remains unchanged when the second word is applied to it


 

18 comments on “Toughie 2142

  1. As a Toughie this was right up my street – a lot of fun and a good steady challenge where, given a bit of persistence, everything eventually yielded. And a second palindrome of the day to boot.

    I only needed Google to check the Verdi chorus in 7d. Surely you can’t have the clothing item in 3d without it being followed by “shirt”.

    As a lover of brevity, doesn’t 12a work better without “lacking a little energy”? I’m not sure that many 10 or 11 year olds would relish being called a young child.

    Many thanks to Kcit and to Bufo.

  2. I’m confined to the house with manflu, so this kept me amused but It was over quite soon.The chorus in 7d is a popular choice on Classic FM. Thank you Kcit and Bufo.

  3. Very much enjoyed this one despite having, yet again, forgotten the abb for ‘place’.
    Have to admit to putting ‘site’ as the second word of 9d, thinking in terms of a homophone (theatre performance) of ‘cite’ which seemed to fit rather better with ‘quote’.

    Top three for me were 17a plus 2&5d.

    Thanks to Kcit for the fun and to Bufo for the blog.

        1. A search through Chambers reveals the following, all used in street names:

          Av.:: …Avenue
          Clo.:: .Close
          Cres.::Crescent
          Ct:: …Court
          Dr.:: …Drive
          Dv.:: …Drive
          Est.:: …Estate.
          Gdns:: Gardens.
          Gro.:: .Grove
          Hse:: House
          La.:: ..Lane
          Pk:: …Park
          Pl:: …Place
          Rd.:: .Road
          Sq:: …Square
          St.:: …Street
          Ter.:: ..Terrace
          Terr.:: .Terrace
          Vw:: …View
          Wy:: …Way

  4. I found this another very enjoyable puzzle. 7d was my first in (what a refreshing change from rappers!), and with it some helpful checkers to get me established. 27a was (by a long shot) my last in – I was not aware of the definition, and in this case the checkers did not help me as much. No stand out favourite for me – just the pleasure and satisfaction of completing it (eventually!). Many thanks to Kcit and Bufo.

  5. Agree with above comments -a steady, enjoyable solve. think you do need all of the clue for 12a, otherwise why leave an “e” out of preteen? Liked 17a, mainly for the implausibility of the anagram!.Thanks to all

    1. Really good workout.
      Had to tease out quite a few answers but needed the blog to understand 7d and 27a which were guessed from the wordplay.
      Thanks to Kcit and Bufo for the review.

    2. Well that was strange!
      Typed a response to your comment and my first post just appeared.
      Anyway. I was saying that RD probably means that Pre-Ten would have been sufficient as past that age you’re not considered a young child anymore.

  6. Really good workout.
    Had to tease out quite a few answers but needed the blog to understand 7d and 27a which were guessed from the wordplay.
    Thanks to Kcit and Bufo for the review.

  7. We spent some time trying to justify the answer for 27a and eventually closely read the BRB entry until we came to this usage that was new to us. In NZ the footwear involved are gumboots, the use of the name used here immediately labels the speaker as a Pom. (This setter does actually live in NZ, for those who did not know.)
    A good fun puzzle that we thoroughly enjoyed.
    Thanks Kcit and Bufo.

  8. A pleasant puzzle – thanks to Kcit and Bufo. I had to verify that the answer I’d come up with for 7d was, however unlikely it seemed, related to Verdi.
    My favourite clue was 2d.

  9. Fun to do, but more 2* difficulty for me. Favourite was 27a, but I also liked 2d.

    Thanks to Kcit and Bufo.

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